I would like to take some high quality wide field shots. What do you recommend for a refractor under $800-1000? I would like the widest view possible with the highest quality for the price. Discuss...

Refractors have field curvature, the shorter the focal length, the greater the curvature. For photography, one needs to correct for field curvature so either a scope with a dedicated field flattener or a separate field flattener is required.

It is specifically designed for wide field astrophotography, It has the short focal length necessary, it is a quad design an FPL-53 triplet in front with a ED field flattener in back. It has a rack and pinion focuser to handle the weight of your camera...

Honestly you really couldnt go wrong with a nice camera lens for wide field imaging. If you are using a DSLR get a good quality lens and you kill two birds with one stone. A lens for day and night. The guy at Astro Anarchy takes sick photos that are shot with a camera lens.

It's not so tough if the criteria is the widest possible field of view because that means one can use a small scope, short focal length scope or maybe a camera lens if it doesn't have issues with chromatic aberration.

I really like my AT65EDQ. It is one fine scope for widefield imaging. The focal length is 420mm, not 480. With a rotating camera angle adjuster, built-in field flattener, FPL-53 optics, sliding dew shield, included dovetail, very nice mounting rings, and a very capable factory focuser, it is hard to beat.

About 12 hours ago I placed my order for the AT65EDQ from Astronomics by phone. I had a great chat with them and I placed the order for $584 with the Cloudy Nights discount. They said they will receive the scope by air-mail in 4 days then ship it to me so I am very happy with this timing. It leaves little time for me to change my mind! It will be nice as a wide-field scope and as an autoguiding scope placed upon my AT6RC. I found tons of great astrophotos on the net (such as Flickr and Astrobin) that people took with it and it looks like an amazing scope. It seems a far cry better than my first refractor, the Orion 120ST which had huge CA! The 120ST represented stars as big fuzzy blue balls. Thanks for the replies, pals!

Congrats! Thats great that they are getting some more that quick!! I figured you'd have to buy used if you didnt want to wait. Thats awesome!! I'm 100% positive you will enjoy yours as much as I do mine. Be sure to post some pics when you get it

Both scopes have some challenge (inward focus distance with 2" diagonal) to utilize 2" full aperture eyepiece for wide TFOV visual use. I am satisfied with quality of viewing experience with both scopes.

I will be using my scope with a self-modified Canon 450D. I have the 2" T-ring which I use with the AT6RC. I will post pics of everything from opening the box to mounting it in the observatory. This is now my 4th scope purchase and I feel I am just getting started...